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USS Hornet blog

Thought I'd start this if it is ok to most. The ship has now been an open museum for 13 years and 1 month. I saw her in 1998 when no work had been done to her and it wasn't pretty. Rusty will have it so much easier with the Iowa because she is in great shape give or take some small items.

Over time this ship has really changed with the hard work of many volunteers especially a hard core group who have stuck it out for the whole 13 years. From cosmetic work, to engineering work, to mechanical work and to aircraft restoration. My wife doesn't understand what the attraction is and why I need to go down every week for 13 years but some of you may know. The only time I haven't been there was when on vacation in the Philippines and still I thought of the ship while there. She kind of like my drug of choice as I get so much enjoyment out of working there even if my head, hands, fingers or legs are killing me after a day. I think the only thing that could defeat this ship would be what affects many museum ships and that is big money. Small money to help with upkeep is not a problem as I know Tom is into $15,000 and I'm close to $4000 in paint and parts.

Part of which helps is events and it seems we had a big one this past week. It was NVIDIA GeForce LAN which I have no idea what it means. Has to do with gaming and I am not into gaming in the slightest. Waste of time in my opinion. Anyway they posted a lot of videos from that weekend from tours of the ship to what the event was about. given that they had use of the whole ship including using the Captain's and Admiral's inboard cabins as press areas I sure hope they paid a pretty penny in rent.

I'm not versed in embedding youtube videos so I just stick with the links.

I have to say Simon doesn't know much of what he is talking about

The bridge level which I restored pretty much from scratch from 2000-02

I'm dubious about his story of a round passing through the armored slit killing a sailor during action in WWII in part 3.

Tours of the engine by one of the Hornet's own original crew. This docent is good.

Same docent on 3rd deck where a lot of the stuff we get from the Reserve Fleet ends up like serving trays for one.

Last one at night. I don't know what hours this went to but it did cover 3 days. When I showed up 3 days afterwards the whole ship was cleaned out and nary a trace of them could be found. Time to move planes back to the hanger.

Fear not Mike, You and others have taken a "war hag" and are slowly but surely (through hard work and dedication no doubt) are turning her into an inspiration. A labor of love that many will never understand until they step aboard her brow or speak her name. Like many men I see aboard they are more concentrated on their work then they are thanks. One of a kind men if you ask me.

And If I were you I would go shake down "the monsters" of Industry and Media in the area of the ship and let them contibute to the cause. Its only rightous IMO.

Mike, thank you very much for your hard work. As I said in an earlier thread, I will be there this weekend with 16 Boy Scouts in tow to (hopefully) enjoy all of your 13 years of effort. It is truly a unique experience to be able to say that you have been able to spend a night on board a real live WWII aircraft carrier. I would like to thank you personally, but I have a feeling we'll keep missing each other due to our different schedules (besides, I only make it out there once a year or so anyway, if I'm lucky). Please keep up the hard work, and I promose I'll keep bringing young men out there to see what our Nation is capable of producing and saving.

P.S. The nVidia GeForce graphics chipset is THE computer graphics chipset of choice for hard-core gamers, and has been for quite a while now; yes, it is a different culture, but it is interesting. BTW, LAN means "Local Area Network"; sounds like they all spent 2 or 3 days playing games with each other (no pun intended!).

"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge

There are many projects to do and I am spending all my time on the Island superstructure since no one else is or has been. This includes both interior and exterior. I may go from one compartment to the next or hop out and work on a length of deck, bulkhead or overhead. Some areas you will never see on an Island tour unless you are brought up there by me. Most would consider the Bridge to be the highlight and everything else small potatoes. Me, I consider every place to be worth restoration from Navigation to a small head. These shots here are of the O8 level which has two different radar equipment rooms. One has all it's pieces while the other only has hanging cables left. Ducting was all removed and scattered there and on two other levels. So while you can't go to O8, O9, O10 and O11 I still couldn't stomach how BAD they looked. So first I located all the ducts for the internal compartments and muscled them into place which wasn't easy. Used the 1/4" bolts and nuts I bought to secure them and then swept up the place. Real cleanup later but now the trunk needs to be prepped.

After maybe 6 months it was time to make the trunk look like something from deck to bulkheads to overhead as all was stripped of old paint. I'm a perfectionist so that includes removing brackets to clean, cleaning of all nuts, clean or replace bolts, remove light fixtures, remove paint from all cables and areas you couldn't easily see like behind ducts. The light fixtures are beautiful porcelain bowls with 4-6 layers of paint on them. Boxes are either removed or suspended so I can get behind them. Nothing is too small to skip. The three brass knobs that close the fuse box are courtesy of the USS Sperry.

After this I worked some decks for awhile but need to take finished pictures of them. From there I took a stroll up to O11 to climb the mast and eliminate a crow's nest that was pooping all over my nice clean painted deck on the Navigation Level. While there I saw this and made mental notes. Every low spot, about 12 of them, had rust like seen here. The picture over the side shows the top of the AC unit at the O10 level and the rust in there was God awful in thickness. One drain, on the high side, so it was useless for who knows how many years. Paint and rust came off in 1" thick chunks which had me very worried about what could be left of the metal. Then after two months of a 3lb. sledge and various chisels I removed all the rust again in chunks. Made one hell of a racket throughout the ship. My chisel did go through one area of that overhead deck and had to have a piece welded in. Then rust converter, aluminum tie coat and polyurethane paint which cost me $250 was put down to last for good according to Kelly Moore/Rustoleum. I get a 30% discount because the shop knows what I am doing and would get 40% if the Hornet CEO would just submit an application as a valid non-profit. AC unit just under two forward antennas where ships horns are located. Have to take finished photos because I finished a few hours before rain and had to rush off to Pri-Fly to start dealing with a leak after the storm.

I admired your determination. If I lived nearby I would volunteer to help out. But since I live on the East Coast, distance is a problem. I would also have liked to help on the Iowa, but same problem, distance.

Not sure if they still need volunteers to do anything on the NJ, but I would be willing there as well. If Dreadnought reads this maybe he can tell me if they could use any volunteers. I did help on the NJ when she was downriver being prepped for museum display at the old New York Shipbuilding Yard.

I admired your determination. If I lived nearby I would volunteer to help out. But since I live on the East Coast, distance is a problem. I would also have liked to help on the Iowa, but same problem, distance.

Not sure if they still need volunteers to do anything on the NJ, but I would be willing there as well. If Dreadnought reads this maybe he can tell me if they could use any volunteers. I did help on the NJ when she was downriver being prepped for museum display at the old New York Shipbuilding Yard.

Ken, I'm more then sure they can use extra hands and will probably never turn away anyone that wants to help out. I'll get you some information and IM you here.

The top of Pri-Fly which has a 1 1/2" high 1/4" thick steel flashing around it. Of course there were no provisions for the draining of water at all. This becomes a little inland sea during the winter and when the wind is blowing kicks up enough waves to swamp your model ship. So got up there and drilled 1/4" holes in the corners to get the water out. The cutters had never been cleaned so that was next so the water could get down. Am in the process of scrapping down to the red lead primer in order to coat with my rust converter before sealing up for good. After that all the poles for hanging the spotlights need to be dealt with. The tar sealer put on the rims of the windows needs to be removed as they allow the cracks to hold water and then rust the window frame underneath. That tar wasn't a brilliant idea. I can access one side of the stack here so I can scrape by hand one day. However, there happens to be a 6" x 2" hole and a 18" x 1" break right along two seams in the stack. Have some patching to do here. Now for the one decision I need to make in painting this roof area. There are three colors present from deck gray to haze gray to white. Haze gray is wrong as someone took the easy way out once. Deck gray is used on all upward facing horizontal decks and overheads. Yet, white is used over the bridge to keep the heat down and one could do that here. So I have yet to decide whether to do deck (dark) gray or white?